Dreams for Plans
by Sk8erGrl
Summary: Alternate Ending to The Show Must Go On. The Crash never happened. Cooper never thought that he’d fall in love. Yet here he is, falling. PeytonCooper.


**Author's Note/Disclaimer:** The characters of One Tree Hill do not belong to me. Rather, they are property of Mark Schwann, though I would gladly take them away from him if he were willing to give them to me, and The WB. Also, is an alternate ending of the sorts to the season finale "The Show Must Go On", the crash never happened. This is a one-shot...unless enough people like it.

**Dreams for Plans**

Cooper never thought that he'd fall in love. As long as he can remember, he's never thought about getting married or settling down with one girl, but when he holds her in his arms and looks down into her green eyes, he can't think of a time when he's been happier. It's odd because he shouldn't be in love with her; there are so many things wrong with being in love with her.

Mostly because no one would ever approve of their relationship, she's too young for him.

He hears her moan lightly and then roll over in the bed next to him, wrapping her arm around his bare chest. A faint smile plays on his lips as he gently slides and arm around her, drawing her in closer to him. Warmth emanates from her body and he runs a hand gently down her long, smooth arm. She's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen and she's even more beautiful when she's sleeping, if that's possible.

After what happened with Rachel, he should have known better than to get involved with another seventeen-year-old, especially this seventeen-year-old. It's not like he could help it though; there's always been something special about Peyton Sawyer. Most of the time, back when he first met her, she had been moody and broody, smiling was a rare thing for her, but the first time he saw her smile is still imprinted in his memory.

Her smile could light up an entire room.

Kissing the top of her blonde head, Cooper gets up and slips on a pair of boxers. Lying there on the floor, having been discarded sometime before they managed to reach the bed the previous night, was her red bride's maid's dress. Reaching over, Cooper picks it up and gently places it on the bed, remembering the dance with her at the wedding. The way she smiled at him, the way she laughed, how beautiful she looked.

It was surprising how they had ended up here. After finally getting Rachel to calm down and driving her home, he had returned to the reception to make sure that he was no longer needed there and to check up on Deb, who had gone home already, to his surprise. Peyton had still been there though, looking sad and heartbroken.

"_Hey you," Cooper moves over and takes the empty seat next to Peyton. _

"_Hey Coop," she offers him a ghost of a smile, her thin arms hugging herself. _

"_Here..." taking off the jacket to his tuxedo, he drapes it over her shoulders, "Everything okay?" _

"_No..." she doesn't say much more than that, she doesn't need to either. Cooper can tell that she's the farthest thing from all right. He sensed something wrong with her all night. Most of the night at least. During their dance she had been at ease, laughing and talking with him. _

"_Do you need anything?" he ponders, "A lift home...anything at all?"_

"_A lift home," she says, catching his eye, "Everyone's gone already." _

_Nodding his head, Cooper holds out his hand for her. She takes it and he leads her back to his ride for the night, the limo. They have it rented until later and since Nathan and Haley are already well on their way to London by now he figures he should get the best out of it while they have it. He helps her into the back of the limo, treating her like a celebrity and then gets into the driver's seat._

It should've ended there. He knows it should've ended there. Enough trouble has been caused by his relationship with another young girl, and he's almost thirty, he should be after women older than teenager girls. Michelle Featherstone was a better option that Peyton Sawyer.

Yet, it just happened.

Peyton was always more mature than girls her age, especially girls like Brooke and Rachel. He never understood why she was dating Nathan either. She was a beautiful, smart girl dating his nephew, who was just like his father, and he just didn't see why she put up with it. It was probably safe to say that Cooper had always had a soft spot for her. He had never planned for something this to happen though.

_They talk and joke in the limo ride back to Peyton's place. He's glad to see her smile again and look more at ease than she did back at the reception hall. Yet, when they reach her driveway and she sees Brooke's car sitting in it, her expression changes again. _

"_What's going on?" _

"_I told Brooke I have feelings for Lucas," Peyton explains, "And now she hates me." _

_She buries her head in herhands. Cooper feels for the girl. He knows the story behind the Lucas, Brooke and Peyton triangle. The whole story had been told to him the year before when Nathan and Lucas visited him. Tree Hill has a lot of drama; Cooper would give it that much. _

"_Want me to wait out here, in case it gets ugly?" Cooper asks. _

"_Please?" Peyton gives him a faint smile. _

She had been through so much in her life. Cooper could never imagine having to deal with as much as she had and still coming out of it like she had. He saw some of her art too, when he went to check up on her in her room. She's talented; there's no question about that.

By the time he comes out of the shower, she's awake and sitting on the end of his bed dressed in his shirt from the night before. She bites her lip nervously, looking at him with those big, expressive green eyes of hers and Cooper can imagine himself waking up to those eyes every morning. For a man who isn't looking for a serious commitment at this point in his life, he finds himself falling fast.

He wonders how his nephew or Lucas could have let her slip away from them.

"Do you need to a shower? I can show you where it is," he offers.

"You forget, I already know where it is," Peyton puts in with a sly smile and gets out of bed. Cooper imagines that that must be the Peyton from the days of Nathan Scott and her sleepovers with him. He can tell she's trying hard to mask her doubt and worry about this situation, mask her pain from last night.

Laughing lightly, he watches her go off to the bathroom. It's funny because she's got a bit of everything rolled up into her, confidence, seductiveness, uncertainty, vulnerability, maturity. There's so much to learn about her, she's more complex than some people might think.

Running his hand through his hair, Cooper knows that he's in trouble. It's not that she's seventeen. That's a factor, but it doesn't worry him as much. He knows that Peyton turns eighteen soon enough, butthat doesn't change how much younger than him she is. It's the fact that he's falling for her and he keeps imagining a future with her. A future he can't have.

"_Peyton?" Cooper steps into her bedroom, looking around. _

_She stands staring into her waist basket at something burning. Tears stream down her cheeks and she looks utterly broken, more than she did before. He walks back over to her and drapes the jacket she gave back to him in the car back around her shoulders as his eyes scan the room. _

"_Ten years of friendship," she mutters, "It's supposed to be hoes over bros. We're supposed to stick together to the end. We survive two dead mothers and three absent parents but we can't survive one stupid love triangle." _

"_She's stupid, to throw away your friendship," he offers._

_Peyton turns and offers him a small smile, comforted by his words. He wraps his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her further and she leans in, leaning her head on his shoulder. After spending so much time with Rachel, watching her being vindictive and jealous, childish in her ways to win him back, he's surprised at Peyton's behavior. Surprised at how passive she is, how accepting she is that she can't have Lucas and how what she's more upset over is the end of her relationship with Brooke._

_She really is different from her peers and he sees it in that moment. Rubbing her shoulder gently, he kisses the top of her head gently, he doesn't think about it much. He's known Peyton for long enough, met her a couple of times when he was in town to visit Nathan and Deb when Dan was too busy with work to notice that he was in town for the weekend. _

"_Is your dad home?" he asks, not wanting her to be alone. _

"_No, he left yesterday," she sniffles slightly. _

"_Why don't you come home with me?" Cooper asks, "So you're not alone." _

_He knows that it's probably not wise. Not with whatever emotions he feels being stirred up for her all of a sudden. He doesn't think they mean anything though, so he's happy and relieved when she nods her head. Neither of them knows what they're getting into he things. _

When Peyton returns from the shower, she's dressed in nothing but a towel. Her short blonde hair is wet and curling slightly. She blushes slightly as she grabs the overnight bag she had thought to bring the night before and pulls out her jeans and a T-shirt. The both of them avoid eye contact with one another, but Cooper can't help but watch her get dressed.

"This was a bad idea," Peyton puts in after a moment, when she's fully dressed.

"I made a mistake," Cooper adds a second later, "I shouldn't have...not after Rachel."

"I've never...I've only ever slept with Nathan and Jake before," Peyton looks at her feet, "I'm not some huge slut..."

"I didn't think you were," he assures her, "This...was just a one time thing. Emotions, hormones...they just got the better of us."

Peyton nods her head slowly and smiles awkwardly at Cooper. Grabbing her bag, she walks out of the room and leaves the house. Cooper watches her go surprised that this isn't how he wanted it to end. If she had said she wanted to be with him, he wouldn't have been opposed to the idea. It's funny how the girl he wants leaves without asking questions or pushing it farther while the girl he doesn't want won't leave him alone.

_He doesn't know how it happened but somewhere in-between the limo and the front door, he had pulled her into a kiss. She had pulled away and just looked up at him, searching his eyes with her own questioning ones, but something grabbed a hold of him and he just pulled her back into another kiss. He didn't know what it was, he didn't know how it happened, it just did. _

_They stumble into the house, trying to be as quiet as they can in case Deb were to wake up from her deep sleep and hear them. He can't keep his hands off of her, running them up and down every curve of her slender frame, exploring every inch of her body that was under the red dress. His hand slip up the bottom, fingers running across her perfect thighs. _

_Eventually, the dress just had just come off. It lay discarded on the floor. She undresses him too, fingertips brushing against his bare chest with every button she unbuttons. The feeling of soft lips against his neck send shivers down his spine and he has never felt this much want for someone in his entire life. It was something that Cooper would never understand. _

As he watches her stand outside of the house, trying to decide what she's going to do, where she's going to go from here, he pictures her at the wedding again. He sees he smile and laugh as they dance. That perfect smile that she had only one time throughout the whole night and it was a smile that was for him and him alone.

Getting up, he goes outside to see her and touches her shoulder gently, "I'll give you a lift home."

Turning her head to look at him, he sees those green eyes again, eyes that are full of questions and wonder and hurt and pain, full of the trials of her life. It takes a second, but finally she nods and follows him back to the car.


End file.
